


Soap (Part 3/3)

by Galexis



Category: Star Wars, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Awkward Romance, Cara Dune POV, F/M, Relationship Talks, first person POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23030704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galexis/pseuds/Galexis
Summary: Cara confronts Mando about their awkward night together.
Relationships: Cara Dune & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	Soap (Part 3/3)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! It’s been nearly 2 months since I wrote “Darker”, and I felt that it was time to wrap up this awkward little love story. At least until I get another idea. ;) Thank you for all of your kind feedback!

***Soap***

When I woke up, the blackout curtains were open, and the room was filled with daylight. I was in bed alone. I was used to it, but on that particular morning, I was disappointed. Mando was already up, back in his armor, and getting the child ready to leave the hotel.

I stumbled into the bathroom in my sleeping clothes, and noticed his sleep set on the counter top, folded earnestly but haphazardly. The bottom of the tub was still littered with remnants of dried flowers and herbs from the handmade bath soap.  
I closed the door leading to the boys’ room, and decided to take a quick rinse. 

I left my sleeping clothes in a heap on the floor, turned the shower water on as hot as it would go, and stepped into the scalding stream. I stared blankly at the bathtub floor, and watched the dried flower petals swirl wildly on their way down the drain. I grabbed the remaining sliver of soap from the ledge of the tub, held it to my nose, and breathed deeply. The scent immediately brought back memories from the night before. The way he smelled, the way he felt. The way he tasted. It was almost too much. 

I hurriedly lathered and rinsed, then stepped out of the shower, wrapping the last unsullied towel around myself. I stopped at the mirror to check the hair situation, realized that it was a lost cause, then retreated to my room to get dressed and sulk.

As expected, Mando came knocking on my door. “Cara? Are you ready to go? We have a little bit of time before we need to intercept the target, so I thought maybe we could take the kid to get some breakfast.”

I sighed deeply. We needed to talk. “Mando, can you come in here for a minute?”

He opened the door slowly, and stepped only a few feet into the room before asking, “Is everything ok?”

Now, I had gone over what I wanted to say over and over in my mind, but in this moment, it all went out the window. I blurted out, “What the HELL happened last night??!!”

He stopped walking toward me, and stood there in stunned silence. His armor creaked as he lifted a hand to the back of his neck. He stammered, “I…I don’t know what you mean. I thought we had a nice time. Did…you NOT have a nice time?”

I leaned against my headboard, mouth agape at his ignorance. “Are you serious? I mean, yes, it WAS nice. Nice until you rolled over and fell asleep! Am I really that boring to you?”

His hand dropped, and so did his head. He was clearly embarrassed. Ever so softly, he uttered, “No...you’re not boring at all. I…I just…I felt so comfortable with you.”

Is he serious right now? “Comfortable? Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

He continued, “I don’t know. I mean, I felt like I could finally…let go. Let go and just sleep. In fact, it’s the best sleep I’ve gotten in a long time. In as long as I can remember….”

Ok. He got me. I didn’t even know how to respond to that. All I could manage was, “Wow.”

“Listen, I’m sorry, Cara. It won’t happen again, I mean, we don’t have to do this ever again.”

Wait, what? “Mando, what are you talking about?”

“I mean, this obviously isn’t working. It’s my fault. I’m no good at this sort of thing, so we should just go back to the way things were and forget about this.”

Now I was mad. I stood up and shouted, “Are you for real?? One night didn’t go as expected, so we should just give up?? No, Mando, that’s not how these things work!!”

“But-“

“But NOTHING! Mando, you listen to me. You just don’t just give up after one try. Not when you care about someone. What about the kid?? You delivered him straight to the bad guys, remember?! You let storm troopers take him away, and some Imperial doctor experiment on him, but you went back for him. Remember that?!!”

He retorted, “That was different. The kid needed me-“

“I need you, Din!!”

OMG. What did I just say? We both stood there in silence, more awkwardness filling the space between us. I’d let myself be vulnerable again, and as much as it pained me, it was also a huge relief. After a moment, I took a deep breath, and I heard him do the same. Then he purred softly, “Cara…” and gestured toward my bed. I took a seat on the edge, and he follow suit.

I stared down as my hands, which were gripping the tops of my thighs. He reached over and placed a hand on one of mine. “Cara, listen. I’m really, really sorry that last night wasn’t what you expected. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. I haven’t been this close to anyone in a long time, and even then, it wasn’t like this. I didn’t have feelings like this…”

My gaze lifted from my hands to his visor. I wished so badly that I could look into his eyes, and search them for any hint of dishonesty. Instead, I had to take his word for it. I bit my lip, and finally found some words. “No, I’m sorry, Mando. I didn’t know what to expect either, and I completely misread what happened. I took it personally when I shouldn’t have. Butt hurt aside, it was the best night I’d had in a long time too.”

I heard a little chuckle from underneath the helmet. “It sounds like we need to get better at communicating.”

I chuckled and agreed, “Yeah, I guess we do. And maybe not have such high expectations…”

“Yeah, maybe not. This is me we’re talking about.”

I laughed out loud, and took his gloved hand in both of mine. I smiled up at the visor, wanting to say so many things that neither of us were ready for. I held back, but offered a bit of encouragement. “I think you’ll get better at it, with a little practice. I mean, you’re definitely better with the kid. Now you only abandon him with people you trust. Speaking of which, where is that little green goober?”

We got up from my bed, crossed through the bathroom and master bedroom. We found the kid in the lounge area, playing with the coasters that he had snatched from the coffee table the night before. I tried to take one out of his mouth, but he had a pretty solid grip on it. It was also completely soaked with drool, so I doubted that the hotel would want it back. We let him hang onto it while we finished packing.

We had just enough time to check out of our suite and grab breakfast before apprehending the bounty. The kid was already out the door and toddling down the hallway, so Mando asked me to grab the last of the bags so that he could run after him. I picked up my own bag, as well as the satchel containing the child’s blanket and trinkets collected from his travels. The kid had dropped the drool-soaked coaster on the ground, so I snatched it up to add to his collection. As I searched the bag for a vacant pocket, I found a small package wrapped in brown paper, nestled in the bottom of the satchel. I pulled it out, and smiled as a familiar scent reached my nose. It was a bar of herbal soap.


End file.
